A Rizzoli Family Dinner
by Vean
Summary: Maura finds out a bit more about the Rizzolis at one of their family dinners.


**Disclaimer: I am only borrowing these characters, and am not profiting from them. They belong to Tess Gerritsen and TNT.**

 ** **A Typical Rizzoli Family Dinner.****

Jane was over at ten on the dot, wearing old clothes, and hair haphazardly tied back into a ponytail. She looked like she exactly was, just out of bed. She murmured to Maura as she passed her,

"Not a word. Coffee first."

Maura closed the door as Jane trudged over to the island, sitting down on one of the stools, hunched over, elbows resting on the counter top. The doctor silently walked over to the coffee maker, and prepared a mug of coffee for Jane, as she liked it, and handed the mug over to her. The detective drank the coffee in silence, while Maura encouraged the tortoises over to the patio where they were to be cleaned. By the time Jane was finished her coffee, she was feeling a bit more herself.

She walked over to the patio, greeting the tortoises. Bass withdrew into his shell when Jane came towards him. Watson snapped at Jane though. Grousing, Jane complained to Maura,

"I really don't know why I bother. Watson doesn't even like me."

Maura smiled at Jane, reminding her of a simple, salient fact;

"Watson is a temperamental tortoise and needs time to warm up to people, even to people he knows. Simply watch as I try to interact with him. He's a reptile, and not a mammal. Don't expect instant warmth and affection from him."

Maura offered him a cactus leaf, but the tortoise simply walked away and hid in his shell. Jane rolled her eyes, and rubbed Watson's shell with her finger. With a soft voice, she coaxed him;

"Hey little man, come on out of yer shell, we ain't predators or anything like that. It's just me, Jane and Maura over there with Bass."

After a few minutes of soft-spoken words in Jane's voice, combined with the stroking of his shell, Watson slowly poked his head out of the shell, and accepted the cactus leaf from Jane. Jane looked over at Maura, and mouthed: _you're a good teacher, thanks._ Maura nodded and smiled. Slowly, she approached Watson and sat down beside Jane. The cranky tortoise stopped eating his leaf and watched Maura balefully, before continuing with his leaf. Maura smiled and stood up, Jane following, knowing what was about to happen. They both moved their tortoises out of the central patio.

Taking out a remote control, Maura turned a key and pressed a button, and the patio suddenly moved into the ground, and crystalline water started filling the recess until a small pool was present where none was before.

"I love your hidden water pool. Perfect for so many reasons. Ok, let's get on with the cleaning of the..."

With a mischievous glint in her eyes, Jane finished the sentence with...

"...reptiles!"

Maura merely sighed and sat in dignified silence, as she looked at her friend. They both suddenly burst out laughing, Maura splashing Jane with the water. The sudden noise upset the tortoises and they both promptly retreated into their shells. After about twenty minutes of calm silence and stroking of the shells, and both women talking to their respective pets, the animals were now pacified and were ready to enter the pool, with a bit of help.

When both reptiles were in the pool, and the tepid water just high enough to cover the plastrons and a few centimeters of the carapaces, Jane and Maura now had about twenty minutes before replacing the water. So they went over to the guesthouse, to talk to Angela about preparing the food for the family dinner later on.

As soon as they approached the door, Angela opened the door and gave both Jane and Maura an exuberant good morning hug, Jane grimacing and Maura initially taken aback, but they returned the greetings.

The Rizzoli matriarch looked at the two before her and asked if they would like to help with the gnocchi and the rest of the food after they were finished with the tortoises. Maura nodded while Jane merely grunted.

"Angela, I enjoy helping with the cooking, I enjoy cooking Italian cuisine. You are such a wonderful cook. Have you thought of running a restaurant, as well as the cafe?"

Angela beamed at Maura, shaking her head.

"while I enjoy food and cooking, I only like to cook for family and friends. I think I do my bit for the public at the station cafe."

After a bit of banter, the women went their separate ways, Angela to her cooking and the two friends to the tortoises. While Angela was kept busy in the kitchen, Jane and Maura continued with their tender care. Pouring a bit of water over the shells, Jane and Maura took a toothbrush each, and gently cleaned the carapaces, taking care of the areas between the scutes, removing waxy build up, and flaking scales. The women took care not to be too rough, and the tortoises enjoyed this bonding time with their owners. Once the entire carapaces were cleaned and ready, Maura warned Jane to be careful with the legs, tail and neck, as they are more sensitive than the carapace.

The tall and lanky detective raised her eyebrow before uttering one word...

"Really?"

Sitting forwards, arms akimbo, Jane continued,

"Just how long have we been cleaning these animals?"

Maura laughed:

"Long enough!"

Chucking, the two friends carried on cleaning their tortoises, until they were both satisfied the reptiles were clean and refreshed.

Jane took the remote control, pressed DRAIN, draining the water from the pool. When this was done, she pressed UP, returning the pool to its patio state, and both women looked at the slow motion of the floor moving upwards. Jane handed the remote control over to Maura who put it in her pocket. Folding her arms, Jane smiled, remarking:

"It's very handy to have a hidden pool, hmm."

Maura grinned and

"That's why I had it installed here, rather than have a standard pool. It's much easier to clean the tortoises this way."

"I'm not talking about animals here, I'm talking about people. It's handy to have a patio when you want, and a pool for other occasions."

After bantering back and forth, the friends walked in and after washing their hands, proceeded to help Angela with the cooking.

After dinner, Angela walked over to the group with something in her hands, when Jane glanced over and immediately frowned.

"Oh Ma, not the family photographs?! I swear, it seems to me you are making it your life's purpose to embarrass me as much as possible!"

"Shush, Jane, I want to show Maura them as she never saw these ones before! You'd swear you were ashamed of your family or something!"

Jane, on the couch, merely rolled her eyes at her mother but said nothing, opting to sit back and watch the baseball game on the TV with Frankie and Tommy, who both sniggered at her reaction, knowing exactly what Angela was going to say. Sure enough, she opened the very old album and pointed to something for Maura to look at. Maura reached for the album politely, when Angela said the one thing she always said to people who would listen to her about this.

"Now, Maura, have a look at this photograph and tell me what you think."

The photograph showed a very tall and lanky woman in a wedding dress standing beside a seated man who was wearing a US soldier uniform, presumably her husband. The writing underneath the photo said "Gianluca & Dora Vicini 25.7.1944." Anyone else would have noted the remarkable likeness between Jane and her Nonna, in the wedding photograph, but there were some differences between the two women, which Maura was about to point out, but Angela would not let her get a word in, so she listened while the older woman eagerly asked her her opinion on the photograph.

"It looks as if Jane is the one getting married there, and not her Nonna, don't you agree? That's my parents on their wedding day. This tells us a lot what Jane would look like getting married."

Maura smiled politely, but could not think of what to say, as she was looking at the photograph in question, thinking to herself about Jane being married, which very nearly happened, before she returned the engagement ring to Casey a month previously. Noting Maura's silence, Angela was quiet for a minute, biting her lip, as she realized what she was saying. Glancing over at Jane, who luckily was engrossed in the baseball game, Angela leaned over to Maura and confided in her;

"Poor Jane, I don't know what happened between the two of them, but to be honest with you, she can do so much better than him. However it is very hard for me to see her being single at her age. You'd think she'd have met someone to love by now, she's a lovely person underneath all that sarcasm and prickly exterior."

Maura picked at an imaginary crease on her dress before replying:

"That's very true, you really have to get to know her, however, she's very much her own person. You can't just have her with anyone, it has to be someone who complements her personality and understands her loyalty to her job and would not expect her to be a suburban housewife. That is so not Jane."

Both women looked over at the three Rizzolis when they roared as the game ended, the Red Sox winning.

"I only want to see her happy, you know. What mother doesn't want that for her children? Besides, I want her to have children of her own before it is too late. Yes, I have a grandson, TJ, whom I love dearly, of course. However, having said that, it is a very happy day indeed when your daughter has a child, you know."

Maura could only gape at her, before nodding. Returning to the photo album, Angela turned the pages, explaining about the various people in the photographs, before Maura asked about the first photo she saw, that of the wedding couple. Angela beamed and asked her if she would like to know more about the Vicinis. Eager to learn more about the Rizzolis, the younger woman smiled and said she would love to. Before Angela could begin, Jane and the men joined them at the dinner table as the game was over on the TV.

Angela turned to her daughter and asked innocently,

"Jane, you were saying you were having the weekend off? Is that correct?"

Suspiciously, Jane looked at her and replied slowly,

"Yes, that's right, why? Cavanaugh told me to take the weekend off and would not entertain the thought of me working for the next few days. As it is, I'm on call until tomorrow night, when I get off duty."

"Oh good, I was double checking. I arranged for you to go on a date with Guiseppe DiNozzo, I met his mother the other day at the shop."

Jane was extremely irritated at this and glared at Angela.

"Oh, MA, I'm definitely not interested, would you ever stop trying to match me with anyone you think would be of interest to me! What you think would be a suitable match is quite the opposite to what I want!"

Angela grabbed at the opportunity here and teasingly asked:

"Then what DO you want in a person?"

Jane snapped back, glaring at her mother:

"I just want to be left alone and not be bothered by would-be matchmakers, especially ones called Angela Rizzoli! Would you ever stop this and just leave me alone!"

Angela raised her hands in the air in despair.

"Harrumph! I'm only doing my best for you. I want to see you happy! You're nearly forty, you know!"

"I would be very happy if you left me alone and started talking about something else!"

Angela sighed in defeat and shook her head.

"You're a very stubborn and grumpy Rizzoli, that's for sure. You got that from your father. That much is evident! Anyway, Maura here wanted to know more about my parents, so would you like to start, Jane?"

Maura looked from mother to daughter and waited with a smile on her face. Her patience was rewarded when Jane slowly started speaking.

"Nonno and Nonna were both from Italy. However the circumstances of their marriage was a mite unusual, to say the least. You see, Nonno moved to America when he was ten, with his parents. When he grew up, he joined the US Army, and as a result found himself being posted to Italy during World War II.

He met Nonna there and they fell in love almost immediately. However, not having met him, her parents did not approve as they wanted him to marry a nice Italian man, not some foreigner whose background they knew nothing about. Things changed immediately once they heard his name. What could be more Italian than Guiseppe Vicini? When they discovered that he had family in the village next to theirs, and met with them, both families discussed and finally approved of the marriage, so they married in Italy. With her family's blessings, Nonna left for the US with her husband. So that's it, really."

Frankie snorted and nudged Jane.

"Is that all you're going to tell Maura about them?"

Angela butted in and berated Jane, gesticulating with her hands,

"you're impossible, you know!"

Jane rolled her eyes and reminded them that it was only the start of the chat, not the end. They acquiesced at this and became quiet.

Maura smiled at this:

"Perhaps we can have a discussion about your Nonna and the three of you? How did you get on with her? How did she find America?"

Tommy spoke for the first time.

"I was too young to remember her clearly. I was only 4 when she died. What I do remember is she was a very warm woman who gave me lots of hugs."

The Rizzoli matriarch retorted, looking at Jane, smiling while doing so.

"Jane, you also have that trait, but won't show that to anyone! You're very prickly and sarcastic, you know!" Her daughter merely rolled her eyes at her, saying, "ya think?"

Maura laughed at this, before turning to Frankie and asking him if he remembered anything about Nonna. Frankie explained that Nonna spoke only Italian at home, but outside the house, she was able to chat in English, she was a remarkably intelligent woman who picked things up easily, but because she moved to America in her twenties, she had a late start, but that wasn't a problem. People were usually forgiving whenever she made mistakes in English.

Angela and the others were listening to the familiar story, as it was common knowledge in the family, but they enjoyed sharing this with Maura, whom they considered as family anyway. Maura, for her part, really appreciated learning more about the maternal grandparents of the Rizzolis, as she did not have similar stories to share about her own grandparents, either biological or adoptive.

While Frankie was talking, Angela offered people desserts to choose from, cannolis, frappas and ice-cream. Jane took a cannoli, while Tommy grabbed the last of the frappas. Maura, mindful of her figure and health, politely declined. When Angela insisted, Maura took a cannoli and thanked her.

Frankie smiled when he told Maura that Nonna used to read from his books to him, helping him to learn to read. It was only much later on he realized that she was bonding with him and at the same time, trying to read in English, as it was a challenge to her, English words often not appearing in print as they sounded. This was so different to Italian, where every word looked exactly as they sounded. So in reality they were helping each other to read in English.

Angela interrupted and smiled:

"You children weren't the first. She started this by teaching your uncle Carmine, then all the rest of her children, myself included. She was a voracious reader, and there were books everywhere in her house, in both Italian and English."

Turning to Maura, she added:

"Maura, I'm one of the middle children in the family. By the time she got to me, she was able to read English quite comfortably. The Boston Italian community was very helpful in this regard, so she picked things up easily, apart from the odd mistake. She firmly believed if you got someone to explain to you, then that person was able to understand it. Frankie, do you remember her asking you to explain things to her?"

Frankie nodded, while Jane smiled indulgently. Angela continued.

"That was her way of making sure you understood what you were reading."

Jane interjected:

"In other words, the best way to learn is to teach. She was very good at it, she got us all to read this way, even though we had school."

Frankie mused about it before speaking up:

"I suppose I was not thinking about it from an adult's perspective."

Jane shoved him and rolled her eyes.

"You were only a small child with the memories of a small child! Took you long enough to catch on!"

Frankie and Tommy chuckled at this, reminiscing fondly.

Soberly, Frankie mused about Nonna's passing.

"I was pretty sad when Nonna died. I was six years old. However, Jane here was inconsolable, they had a special bond, Nonna and her. Maybe you can tell Maura more about her?"

Jane quietly nodded, beckoning for the album, as she wanted to show Maura a specific photograph. When Maura looked at it, she looked up at Jane, remarking on how the bond between them was evident, especially as they looked so similar. In the photograph, the seven year old Jane was standing beside her seated Nonna, looking at the older woman, who was also looking at her. Their physical similarity, which was already remarked on earlier, made it look as if it was the past and the future selves looking at each other.

"You see this photograph? We had a special bond, as Frankie pointed out. I was her first grandchild, and we used to spend hours together. She would talk to me in Italian, and back then, I was able to chat away with her in the same language."

Angela interjected:

"It's a shame, Jane doesn't really have the same fluency now, she's too American now. She may have the Italian culture in her, passed on from mother to daughter through the generations, but because she grew up and was educated in Boston, she is also an American. When people say she is Italian, they mean the culture, but really, she's not Italian in the way Italians from Italy are..."

Impatiently, Jane interrupted:

"You're rambling. Let me tell Maura about Nonna."

Glaring at Angela, Jane continued as if she wasn't interrupted.

"Well, Nonna was Italian, so we used to spend a lot of time together chatting and she fed me a lot of gnocchi, cannolis and frappas, spoiling me. I'm sure you want to know about how Nonno and Nonna got on."

Maura nodded at Jane and beckoned for her to continue, with her hand.

"They were a very romantic couple and every morning without fail, as Nonno left for work, he used to give Nonna a kiss, saying to her 'Sei sempre nel mio cuore!"

Maura smiled at this,

"How romantic! To say to your wife "You are always in my heart" as a morning tradition! I'm sure they argued like any other married couple?"

Angela laughed at this:

"Of course they did, but they always made up. They never believed in keeping strong feelings inside, better out than in. This made their relationship stronger as they never kept quiet about what was troubling them. They were quite demonstrative. Jane used to be like them, and look at her now!"

Jane scowled and warned her mother not to go too far in annoying her. Angela raised her hands in surrender, but told her not to snap at her, she was her mother after all. Jane rolled her eyes at this, but smiled and gave a brief nod, which mollified Angela.

Jane looked at Maura before continuing:

"It was a very sad day indeed when Nonno died of a heart attack, I was 8 years old, and after the death, Nonna always wore black, and insisted I be with her. I loved her company but it was sad to see Nonna so heartbroken. We used to visit Nonno's grave every Sunday, before the family meal. She used to say the one phrase each time, weeping. I can remember it very well. "Mi manchi come l'aria che respiro" I miss you like the air I breathe." She only lived for one year more before she died herself. We always said she died of a broken heart."

Maura was deeply touched by what she heard. "What a story!"

Suddenly Jane's phone rang. She answered it, listening to Dispatch, then told the others she had to go as they had a suspect in custody who needed to be interrogated.

"Bye Jane!" "Bye!" "See you later."

After Jane left, Angela took the album into her hands, turning the pages until she found the photograph she was looking for. She showed it to Maura, who saw that it was a photograph of Angela's parents in middle age, smiling at each other.

"That was taken on my wedding day. Jane did not tell you the full story, maybe she is embarrassed. However I feel it is very important, really important. You know I want Jane to be happy in her life. She is such a grump sometimes."

Everyone present laughed at the truth of that. Angela continued:

"My parents had another phrase and they always said it to each other, and I will never forget the laughs at the dinner table when Janie, she was only nine then, loudly declared that she wanted someone to have, just like her Nonno and Nonna had each other."

Intrigued, Maura wanted to know more.

"What's the phrase?"

Angela merely stated:

"Io ti appartengo e tu mi appartieni"

Maura was deeply touched by this and remarked on what a romantic thing it was to say. She also stated that she wasn't surprised Jane did not want to talk about that, as she was so private about her feelings. She had other thoughts about people belonging to others like objects but refrained from saying so.

Angela gently smiled and added;

"Well, Janie loved the idea of belonging to one special person and that same person belonging to her, so she could say the same thing as her Nonna and Nonno said to each other. Poor girl, she was mortified when we all teased her about it. However when the teasing got too much she stopped talking about it totally. She was always such a sensitive child. The teasing continued but not for long. However, from this, and other experiences, she learned that the best way to handle embarrassing moments is to keep her feelings to herself."

Laughing softly, Angela nodded,

"People tell me I'm interfering but I don't think I am, I'm helping! That is the only way I know how to make sure everyone is happy. I cannot help if people don't tell me what they are thinking. Jane is so closed mouthed sometimes!"

Frankie took a frappa and after biting into it, remarked that Jane may not appear to be sensitive, but that sensitive girl is still there, she just built a shell.

"Hmm, Maura, you could say that Jane is the human version of a turtle or a tortoise, whatever is applicable, when it comes to feelings."

Maura chuckled at this, but said nothing.

They noticed a movement and looked around. Bass came ambling up towards the table, on the lookout for some leafy greens or strawberries. Tommy lifted a lettuce leaf, and looked at Maura questioningly. She shook her head, pointing to a box of cactus leaves and a punnet of British strawberries.

"Iceberg lettuce is not nutritious enough for Bass, even though he seems to like it. He would be much better off eating one of these."

Tommy reached over and pulled the box of cactus leaves and offered one to Bass, who peered at him suspiciously, before retreating into his shell. However, Watson, the other tortoise who by this time left the sanctuary of the guest bedroom, crawled over to take the cactus leaf. Holding it in his mouth, he crawled back towards the quietness of the guest bedroom. Maura and Tommy smiled as they watched the two tortoises in action. Maura turned to Tommy and explained to him,

"You were too fast for Bass. You need to take your time with him. Just leave the leaf by his shell, near his head, and leave him be. He'll eat it."

So Tommy selected another cactus leaf and left it by Bass. The people at the table chatted away, while Bass slowly emerged from his shell and munched at his cactus leaf. About fifteen minutes later, the tortoise butted his head against Tommy's ankle for more leaves which he promptly got. Tommy and Frankie moved over to the couch as they watched the reruns of the baseball game they saw earlier, as the women tidied up and cleared the table.

Angela suddenly grabbed Maura in a huge bear hug and thanked her for all her help in preparing the food and ensuring it was yet another successful family day. Maura extricated herself from the hug as politely as possible, and assured Angela she enjoyed helping her out with the preparations and learning more about cooking in the Italian way.

"Aw stop that, you're family, Maura! Don't forget it."

Maura smiled, touched.


End file.
